Fighting games don’t get much more iconic that Midway’s Mortal Kombat. With the franchises eleventh entry releasing earlier this year on consoles, the least I could do was look back at the arcade franchise that roundhouse kicked us all in the face in the early 90’s.
Maybe it was because there was an MK machine at our local bowling alley, but I’ve always thought the attract mode for this game was amazing. Just watching the character bios scroll on screen, then seeing a really short FMV of said fighter, made the game that much cooler. Oh, and seeing big bad Goro up close was pretty sweet.
If you didn’t grow up in arcades in the 90s, you can’t truly imagine what it was like watching others play the game. Kids and adults alike would crowd around the machine, cheering and yelling as the action unfolded. If someone pulled off a fatality, you better believe people reacted. It was awesome! It really was a game that made arcades stand out as a community of gamers unique to the time.
The cabinet itself features iconic imagery of Johnny Cage and the classic Mortal Kombat logo. Personally I’ve always been a fan of the Mortal Kombat series’ control decks. The button layouts are special, but the art around them is great. Seeing an original cabinet still in good condition is a real blast from the past, and one I am happy I have fond memories enjoying.
Played at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL 2019
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I kind of miss CRT displays with the curved glass screen. We have a CRT console TV downstairs but we don’t game on it. I have a few 1up cabinets, one of them is the MK one which I am modding into Carnevil. The others are TMNT, Pac-man countercade, and a Cruis’n sit down racing cab mod I’m making with a racing seat. I don’t mind sacrificing MK for Carnevil. There is a newer version coming out with a recessed screen that might have stereo sound. The version I have has a speaker jack to plug a speaker in, I have a speaker bar, but the output is still mono just louder. TMNT is stereo.
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